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FREEDMEN'S BUREAU. 



SPEECH 



OF 






I 1 

OF MASSACHUSETTS, 

IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 23. 1866 




I 



The House resumed the consideration of House 
bill No. 613, to continue in force and amend an act 
entitled "An act to establish a Eureau for the relief 
of Freedmen and Refugees," and for other purposes. 

Mr. ELIOT said : 

Mr. Speaker: I will endeavor to explain 
the bill section by section. 

The first section continues the bureau for a 
term of two years. Gentlemen will see that 
that differs from the bill vetoed by the Presi- 
dent, which was indefinite in its duration. 
This continues the bureau for two years, and 
removes one objection. If it becomes neces- 
sary at the end of that time further to con- 
tinue the bureau Congress will take whatever 
action may be deemed proper. 

The second section provides that the care of 
the bureau shall be extended to all loyal refu^-ees 
and freedmen. This is necessary. The^law i 
of March, 1865, was passed before the amend- ! 
ment abolishing slavery. It was passed liefore ' 
any slaves were made free except by military 
order or military proclamation. There has ' 
been no law passed since the constitutional 
amendment was ratified. There has been no 
law, therefore, as I shall show in another con- 
nection, which embraces in its affirmative pro- 
visions any freedmen except such as were de- 
clared freeby the action of their own States or 
by the military proclamation of commanders 
|Or of the President. All other freedmen who 
were the subjects of emancipation by constitu- 
tional amendment are not at this time guarded 
'^3' iny affirmative provision of law which Con- 
gress Ws enacted. The second section also 
varies froi., the previous law, which did not 
receive the sanction of the Executive. It de- 
hnes the purpose of the law in the care of the 
reedmen providing that such care shall only 
be extended to them as shall be necessary to 
mable them as speedily as practicable to 
become self-supporting citizens of the United 
states, and to aid them in making the freedom 
vhich has been conferred by constitutional 



amendment available to them and beneficial 
to the Republic. 

The third section simply confers upon the 
President the power to aj^point two assistant 
commissioners in addition to those authorized 
by the act of March, 18G5. That act called 
for the appointment of a commissioner in each 
of the States which had been in rebellion. ]t 
was found absolutely necessary that the care 
of the bureau should be extended to other 
States, and under the authority of laAV there 
has been no power to appoint assistant com- 
missioners excepting in those ten States. The 
object of this is, therefore, simply to authorize 
the appointment of two more assistant com- 
missioners. 

The bill which was heretofore passed called 
for a territorial division of the country into 
districts, and it was thought unwise by the 
President that such power should be given 
I and that siich districting should be had. This 
bill contains no such provision. It simply 
\ authorizes the appointment of two assistant 
i commissioners, and that the different commis- 
sioners, under the President, shall have charge 
! each of one district to be assigned him by the 
President where his service can be best em- 
ployed. The former bill was objected to upon 
the ground that it called for the appointment 
of officers, clerks, and agents in all parts of 
the United States, and that the possible ex- 
pense might run up to a very large amount. 
The present bill avoids the districting of the 
country, and it confines the appointment of 
clerks or officers in this way : that the Com- 
missioner shall, under the direction of the 
President, and so far as the same shall be in 
the judgment of the President necessary for 
the eflicient and economical administration of 
the affairs of the bureau, appoint such agents, 
clerks, and assistants as may be required for 
the proper conduct of the bureau. It also 
provides that each agent or clerk, not being a 
military officer, shall have an annual salary 



v 



'U 






of not less than $500, nor more than $1,200, 
according to the service required of him. It 
Avill be found that the amount of compensation 
that is fixed is so moderate and the limitation 
upon the appointment of clerks and agents so 
defined, that the hill cannot be fairly exposed 
t ) criticism of that kind. It provides that 
military officers may be detailed to duty, and 
distinctly confers upon the President the power, 
if in his judgment it is safe and judicious so to 
do, to detail from the Army all the officers and 
agents of this bureau ; but no officer so as- 
signed shall have increase of pay or allow- 
ances. It also provides that the Commis- 
sioner, when it can be done consistently with 
jniblic interests, may appoint, as assistant 
commissioners, agents, and clerks, such men 
as have proved their loyalty by faithful service 
in the armies of the Union during the rebel- 
lion. 

The fourth section of the bill is rendered 
necessary Ijy an inadvertent omission in the 
law of 18G5. which provided no mode under 
which the Secretary of War could under that 
law issue medical stores. Of course it was 
necessary that medical stores should be issued 
where no other means were at hand or possible 
to be obtained. But the law as passed in 18G5 
did not contain the authority which is put in this 
fourth section, to isaue such medical stores and 
other aid as may be needful ibr the purpose 
named in the section. It will be found that 
t'.ie suggestion which was made, I think, by the 
gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Shellabarger,] 
lias l^een adopted by providing that no person 
shall be deemed "destitute," "suffering," or 
"dependent upon the Government for sup- 
port," within the meaning of this act, who is 
able to find employment, and could, by proper 
industry or exertion, avoid such destitution, 
suffering, or dependence. The last part of this 
section is made necessary because of this fact, 
that we expect A'ery shortly that the regular 
medical force of the Army will be reduced to 
the minimum required for the service of the 
Army. As soon as that is done the volunteer 
surgeons will be mustered out of the service, 
and then there will bo no medical force which 
tlie bureau can have the aid of, because of the 
fact that there will be no surgeons retained 
in the regular Army, whose duties will not be 
required for the service ; and it is deemed in- 
dispensaljle that a provision should be made 
simply authorizing the Secretary of War to 
continue in office, as surgeons of the bureau, 
the volunteer officers now employed, and to 
fill vacancies with other volunteer surgeons un- 
less suitable surgeons of the regular Army can 
be assigned to dut}'. If such surgeons can be 
made available, it will be the duty of the Com- 
missioner to employ them ; but if the surgeons 
of the Army are reduced to the minimum num- 
ber, and no oilier aid can be had, then the 
object of this provision is to provide some 
surgical and medical aid for the use of the 
liureau. 

Sfection five is the same as was contained in 

J<^' ... 



the other law excepting that instead of three 
millions of the public lands in the five States 
of Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, 
and Arkansas, the reservation is of one million 
acres; and I would say in regard to this sec- 
tion that if the bill which has just been reported 
from the Senate, and which has now gone to a 
conference committee, should become a law — 
I refer to the homestead law which passed this 
House some time ago — this section will become 
of no value, and will be stricken from the bill. 
That time will have arrived before, in the reg- 
ular order of things, this bill shall have passed 
both branches of Congress. If that bill does 
not become a law, for reasons which I will 
attempt to show it is essential that this section 
should be retained. If it does become a law, 
the provisions of that law will enable the 
Department to provide for the freedmen with- 
out the aid of the fifth section of this bill. 

The sixth section, as it is now reported, 
refers to the Sherman lands, and is substan- 
tially altered from the provision of the previous 
law. It now provides that when the former 
owners of those lands, which are now allotted 
to the freedmen, and which have been occu- 
pied, as it is known, by them under licenses 
from the Government, shall apply for a resto- 
ration, the Commissioner shall procure other 
lands, and shall assign them to the occupants 
of lands under General Sherman's order, re- 
quiring them to pay a fair rental for the lands 
and permit them to purchase, provided they 
will pajf to the Government the full cost which 
the Government has incurred for the lands. 
The provision is that no sale shall be made 
of the lands purchased at a price less than 
the cost to the United States. 

The seventh section very materially changes 
the former law which authorized the purchase 
of sites, and the erection of buildings for 
schools, and the carrying on of those schools ; 
and it was made asubject of comment that the 
United States ought not to educate. It will be 
seen upon an examination of this section that 
all that it is proposed to do here is to procure 
buildings for the schools. The Commissioner 
is authorized to cooperate with private benev- 
olent associations of citizens, and to provide 
proper sites and buildings, for purposes of edu- 
cation, whenever such associations shall, with- 
out cost to the Government, provide suitable 
teachers and means of instruction, and he shall 
furnish such protection as may be required for 
the conduct of such schools, and the property 
shall remain the property of the United State? 
until sales are authorized bylaw. Itwilli')^ 
seen that the object of this section is to ;^i'Ovide 
school-houses and protect those school-houses, 
while the schools themselves are conducted l)y 
associations of benevolent individuals from the 
North and West, or from any part of the coun- 
try where associations are formed for purposes 
of education. I can hardly imagine that any 
gentleman can object to a provision of that 
kind. It is perfectly plain that education can- 
not be secured to these freedmen unless the 



Government, for the present, shall protect the 
buildiugB in which the schools are conducted. 
It is needless that I should occupy time in 
efforts to prove that proposition. 

The eighth section simply embodies the pro- 
visions of the civil rights bill, and gives to the 
President authority, through the Secretary of 
War, to extend military protection to secure 
those rights until the civil courts are in opera- 
tion. VVhen the civil courts shall again be in 
operation the whole jurisdiction hereby con- 
ferred ceases. Before that time there is no 
jurisdiction anywhere except in the military. 
Until that time there can be no redress of 
grievances and no administration of the rights 
which under the law are now possessed by the 
freedmen but by military aid. But as soon as 
the civil courts are reorganized and reestab- 
lished, then this bill provides that the jurisdic- 
tion conferred upon the officers of the bureau 
shall no longer exist. In other words, it is 
carrying out what has been done since the 
organization of the bureau in March, 1805. 

Mr. Speaker, wherever we turn in our legis- 
lative path we encounter questions of freedmen 
and freedmen' s rights ; they face us everywhere. 
No peace can come that will " stay" until the 
Government which decreed freedom shall vindi- 
cate and enforce its rights by appropriate legis- 
lation. Absent States may return to their alle- 
giance pursuant to laws which you enact, but 
no true welcome will be found until some suffi- 
cient measure of justice shall be meted out to 
the men whom "military necessity" converted 
from slaves to citizens. No man, forever here- 
after, can live upon our continent and be a 
slave. That much by the sword and by the 
law has been decreed. During all our national 
life, before the slaveholder's rebellion began, 
from time to time, by leading political parties 
in the free States it was passionately urged 
that somehow or other slavery must be abol- 
ished. But their action was not persistent and 
could never have been effective, because atone 
and the same point both parties stopped, and 
that point was short of freedom ; for it was 
believed that Congress could not, under the 
Constitution, act concerning slavery within the 
States, and so this crime, which most of the 
fathers who framed our organic law detested, 
was, by contemporaneous construction of that 
law, placed beyond the reach of national legis- 
lation. 

The power to adjust what were termed 
"domestic relations," which were held to 
include the relation between the white master 
who owned and the man of African descent 
who was the subject of bondage, was not 
regarded as included in the powers delegated 
to the United States or prohibited by the Con- 
stitution to the States, and therefore fell among 
the reserved powers of the States. Whether 
this was right or wrong, it was the accepted 
law, which only secession ordinances and fla- 
grant war enabled us successfully to overrule, 
and now by military proclamation, compelled 
by necessity, but resting upon principles of 



eternal justice, and by State emancipation, j.nd 
finally by constitutional amendment, universal 
freedom has been ordained. The knot wliicli 
politicians could not untie during eighty years 
of peace the sword of Mr. Lincoln cut at one 
blow. The power to liljerate, which is now 
confessed, involved the duty to protect, and the 
Freedmen' s Bureau was its earliest legal recog- 
nition. I claim for Congress full power to 
protect, by lit legislation, the freedom which 
was thus for the avowed good of the Govern- 
ment conferred by the Commander-in-Chief 
and confirmed Ijy subsequent law. " I do this 
as an act of military necessity," Mr. Lincoln 
said. But when he had done that act, which 
was rightfully done, according to the laws of 
war then operating in full force, the duty and 
the power of Congress were at once disclosed. 
Upon that power, thus derived, the right and 
the duty of Congress to establish the Freed- 
men' s Bureau will be found to rest securely. 

Since the establishment of this bureau an- 
other source of power has been given to us Ijy 
the people of the States acting through their 
Legislatures. The great -amendment declares 
that — 

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex- 
cept as a punishment for crime whereof the party 
shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the 
United States or any place subject to their jurisdic- 
tion." 

And by its second section confers upon Con- 
gress, by direct grant, "power to enforce this 
ai'ticle by appropriate legislation."" By this 
act alone freedom in every State was by the 
people suddenly conferred upon four million 
bondmen. Whether military jDOwer had effect- 
ually wrought its work or not that amendment 
was effectual. States that had emancipated 
might reenslave. But that amendment in- 
stantly, when ratified, worked perpetual free- 
dom. States which had not formally united 
their fortunes with the rebel government be- 
came at once subject to the power of that amend- 
ment, and in a moment the bondmen ■within 
their borders were made free.' 

By necessary implication, if the second sec- 
tion had not conferred it, we should, I trust, 
have found and asserted the power to protect 
the freedmen. But there is the grant of power. 
And whatever legislation Congress — the sole 
and exclusive judge in the first instance, sub- 
ject ultimately to the judgment of the highest 
judicial tribunal of the Union — shall deem to 
be appropriate to make fairly effective the great 
grant of freedom is thus authorized and en- 
joined. A race of men enslaved by force and 
kept in bondage for generations, not recog- 
nized as clothed with manhood; held, clothed, 
fed for service ; denied education, knowing 
no relation of husband, wife, or parent, but 
only of master and slave, after two centuries 
of oppression is declared free — free at one 
moment, free where they happen to be. upon 
the plantation, within the homes of their former 
masters, and under the angry eye of owners 
who see their "property" transformed into 



"men," and made citizens by law. Now, wliat 
legislation do you deem approj^riate to enforce 
that act of freedom? Manifestly someis needed; 
for if the startling facts that come to us from 
the recent rebel States, of fiendish oppression 
and brutal outrage, were wholly undisclosed, 
we yet should know that masters who had 
rioted in the lusts of slavery would not let their 
bondmen go in peace ; or if they did, we still 
should know that a race prostrate for genera- 
tions beneath the heel of tyrannous power could 
not have their freedom made effectual without 
our legislative aid. 

And j'et since that great amendment became 
a living law we have done nothing, literally 
nothing, to protect them. The -Freedmen's 
Bureau was a necessity created by military 
law. It was a law before the amendment was 
ratified by three fourths of the loyal States. 
Now, another condition of facts exists, and 
every day lost by our inaction adds to the great 
weight we bear of duty undischarged. I re- 
member that we have sent to the President one 
bill. It had been passed, as I know we all 
believed, with his substantial approval, not 
of all its provisions, perhaps, but of its scope 
and general character. But we wei;e in ©wor. 
Let us try again. I do not know that any 
utterance of mine within these Halls can reach 
the presence of that high oSicer whom I 
labored to lift np from among his fellows, while 
men who now attempt to win him from those 
who were his friends, by fulsome praise, were 
heaping abuse upon him mountain-high, and 
that not in loyal States alone, but in rebel 
communities, and among traitors red-handed 
with the blood of our slain sons, and armed 
to take the nation's life. But, sir, if I could 
be heard I would, in behalf of these freed- 
men, invoke his aid. Our action, M'ithout his 
cooperation must be partial and of imjierfect 
effect. Among the thirteen powers conferred 
by the Constitution upon the President the 
'•veto power"' was given as a needful guard 
to the people's .rights when laws ill-advised 
or rash or contravening the Constitution are 
enacted. Such power is itself controlled by a 
two-thirds vote of Congress. But this bill, thus 
passed, might be an imperfect weapon in the 
hands of officers even of willing loyalty, be- 
cause every official arm, if it would strike 
effective blows in this direction, must be upheld 
by the moral power of the Executive. I would 
therefore invoke his aid in behalf of these 
millions of men who look up to him as the 
controller of their destiny. He knows how 
they are oppressed. Senators v/ho claim to 
be loyal may deny the facts established by the 
mouth of many witnesses. But the President 
knows the truth. He knows th(> ' ' slaveholder. ' ' 
He has felt tlie contempt and contumely and 
scorn with wliich the mean aristocrat knows 
how to crush all whom the Constitution desig- 
nates as "other persons," and since the war 
for slavery began has luul his home made deso- 
late and has held life in hand while traitors 
jubilant with assured Kucoess have wreaked 



vengeance upon loyal men who owned no 
slaves. 

Yes, sir, he knows these men. Unclothed 
of office, he could not now live in his own old 
home in Tennessee with the military arm of 
Government withdrawn. Those men stand 
before him now with simulated respect. There 
is no human toady upon earth that crouches so 
meanly to the man above him as the tyrant 
who arrogantly puts his foot upon the man be- 
neath him. The President has verified that 
fact in ethics. They solicit and obtain pardon 
with bated voice, but no repentance has brought 
forgiveness ; and if the concurring testimony 
of loyal men can substantiate any fact, and put 
it beyond fair denial, it is proved to us that in 
every State where the traitor flag supplanted 
the banners of the Republic, and in Kentucky 
none the less, the hatred which disloyal men 
have felt toward their Government is finding 
expression this day upon the head of the un- 
protected freedman. 

Mr. Sj^eaker, I propose right here to prove 
that statement. General Fisk, in his report to 
the Commissioner of the Bureau, dated Janu- 
ary G, 18(3G, says: 

"There are some of tlie meanest unsubjuccated and 
unreconstructed, rascally rebellious revolutionists in 
Kentucky that curse the soil of the country. They 
now claim that although the amendment to the Con- 
stitution forever abolishing and prohibiting slavery 
has been ratified, and proclamation thereof duly 
made, yet Congress must legislate to carry the amend- 
ment into effect, and therefore slavery is not dead in 
Kentucky. Others cling to the old barbarism with 
tenacity, claiming that the Government must pay 
Kentucky for her emancipated slaves. There are 
few public join-nals in the State which afford great 
comfort to tlfc malcontents, but the majority of tlie 
people of Kentucky hail the dawn of universal lib- 
erty, and welcome the agency of the bureau in ad- 
.iusting the new relations arising from the total abo- 
lition of slavery. I have succeeded in obtaining the 
services of many first-class, judicious, popular citizens 
to act as superintendents at the important points. 
The 'Blue Grass' region is in the best of hands. 
General Hay, at Hopkiusville, was a bad failure, lie 
lias been removed. I have consulted General Pal^- 
mer in the appointment of every agent. I return to 
Kentucky on the fOtli instant, by invitation of the 
Governor, and shall meet the principal planters of 
the State at Frankfort, in convention, on the 11th. I 
hope to do good^ unto them, and make the bureau a 
blessing to all ICentucky." 

On the '23d of January, after the convention 

had been held, he writes : 

"On the part of many of the politicians in Ken- 
tucky there is a bitter opposition to the bureau. 
Governor Bramlette is most cordial in his expressed 
approval of my official action, and, I think, earnest 
in his desire that the Assembly so legislate as to give 
the freedmen impartial justice. A majority of the 
legislators otTicially denounce the bureau, and pro- 
nounce its presence in Kentucky a usurpation of 
power, and the act of Congress by which it was estab- 
lished unconstitutional. Just now there is at Frank- 
fort a heated canvass for a United States Senatorship 
in progress. Candidates for the position vie with 
cacli other in dencnmcing the Freedmen's Bureau. 
Men who have fought gallantly for the honor of their 
country's Hag arc willing to purchase promotion to 
the United States Senate at the expense of justice to 
thirty thousand of their fellow-citizens and fellow- 
soldiers too. The Legislature makes no progress in 
the enactment of laws applicable to the new condi- 
tion of things, Ijut h'ngtliy resolutions denunciatory 
of tlie bureau, and requesting the President to imme- 
diately withdraw the odious institution fr<Hn the 
State, are discussed in protracted debate, and voted 



P'.x^^'^.TlBr9 



upon affirmativelywith astonishing unanimity, Nei- 
ther myself nor any of my subordinates are accused 
of much wrong-doing. We are even complimented 
as being .iust and conservative gentlemen; but the 
Freedmen's Bureau and every soldier of the United 
States must be immediately removed from Kentucky 
to prevent irritation, <fcc. If all the States werq_to so 
solemnly protest against the presence of United States 
troops within their borders, and the country should 
tliink best to gratify the clamor for immediate and 
entire removal that we hear from so many States, the 
Government would necessarily be compelled to rent 
a parcel of ground in Canada on which to erect bar- 
racks for the accommodationof its withdrawn troops. 

"I assure you that in no portion of the country is 
this bureau more a positive necessity than in many 
counties of Kentucky ; and for the sake of the nation's 
plighted faith to her wards, the freedmen, and in be- 
half of humanity and justice, I implore you and the 
President to listen to no request for its withdrawal 
from the State until the civil authorities, in the en- 
forcement of impartial laws, shall amply protect the 
persons and property of those for whoso protection 
and defense this bureau is set. 

"I saw with my own eyes our fellow-soldiers, yet 
clad in the uniform of their country's Army, fresh 
from their muster out of service, who within the last 
ten days were the victims of fiendish atrocity from 
the hands of their former masters in Kentucky. 
These returned soldiers had been to their old homes 
for their wives and children, and had for this olfense 
been knocked down, whipped, and liorribly bruised, 
and threatened with shooting, should they ever dare 
to set their feet on the premises of the old mnster 
again and intimate that their families were free." 

On the 1-ith of February General Fisk writes 

to the Conamissioner of the Bureau as follows : 

"Geneeal: Kentucky. — I regret that I am unable 
to report the bureau afiairs progressing as smoothly 
in Kentucky as in Tennessee. 

" The freedmen of the State are very generallydis- 
posed to enter into labor contracts for wages or a 
share of the crop, and most of them prefer remaining 
in their own State to emigration elsewhere. On the 
part of a largo majority of the whites I believe there 
is an honest desire to adjust on a fair basis the new 
relations arising from the abolition of slavery, but 
the bureau is not a popular institution with them. 
They regard its presence among them as unauthor- 
ized—denounce its oBieials as usurpers and despots, 
and clamor for its immediate removal from the State. 

" In obedience to orders, immediately upon the 
ratification of the constitutional amendment forever 
abolishing and prohibiting slavery, I extended over 
the more than two hundred thousand freedmen of 
Kentucky the supervision of this bureau, and ap- 
pointed agents in a few counties only. Superintend- 
ents were selected from the citizens, and appointed 
upon the recommendations of the best men I could 
consult. The Kentucky Legislature has, by numer- 
ous resolutions, called upon Government to re- 
move the bureau frem the State; propositions to for- 
ever disqualify any citizen from holding an office in 
the State who might act as an agent of this bureau, 
were introduced and discussed. The official State 
paper (Louisville Democrat) has declared that, by 
the ratification of the constitutional amendment, the 
slavery question has become more unsettled than 
ever, and many of its readers, believing its doctrines, 
practice accordingly, and still hold freedmen .as slaves. 
These intluences in opposition to freedom have ren- 
dered it difficult to conduct the bureau affairs in 
Kentucky with that harmony and efficiency which 
have elsewhere produced good results. 

" More than twenty-five thousand colored men of 
Kentucky have been soldiers in the Army of the 
Union. Many of them were enlisted against the 
wishes of their masters, andnow, after having faith- 
fully served their country, and been honorably mus- 
tered outof the service, and return totheir oldhomes, 
they are not met with joyous welcome and grateful 
words for their devotion to the Union, but in many 
instances are scourged, beaten, shot at, and driven 
from their homes and families. Their arms are taken 
from them by the civil auUiorities and confiscated 
(or the benefit of the Commonwealth. The Union 
soldier is fiued for bearing arms. Thus the right of' 
the people to keep ai^d bear arms as provided in the 



Constitution is infringed, and the Government for 
whose protection and preservation these soldiers have 
fought is denounced as meddlesome and despotic 
when through its agents it vmdertakes to protect its 
citizens in a constitutional right. Kentuckians who 
followed the fortunes of John Morgan, and did all in 
their power to destroy the nation, go loaded down 
with pistols and knives, and are selected as candi- 
dates for high positions of honor and trust in the State. 
The loyal soldier is arrested and punished for bring- 
ing into the State the arms he has borne in battle for 
his c,ountry. 

"That you may have a bird's-eye view of the pro- 
tection affonled the freedmen of Kentucky by the 
civil law and authorities, I have the honor to invite 
your attention to the following extracts from com- 
munications received from our correspondents iu 
that State. 

" C. P. Oyler, of Covington, writes as follows: 

" 'Jordan Finney and family (freedmen) lived in 
Walton, Kentucky; they owned a comfortable home. 
Two of the daughters were wives of colored soldiers, 
and lived with him. Returned rebel soldiers herein- 
after named combined to drive this family from the 
State. They attacked the house three times, abused 
the women and children, destroyed all their clothing, 
bedding, and furniture to the value of $500, and finally 
drove them from their homes. Thenames of the per- 
petrators, so far as known, are Allen Arnold, Jolin 
Arnold, Franklin Yowell. Woodford Fry, L. Snow, 
and Robert Edwards; all live in Walton, Kentucky. 
An attempt was made to bring these parties to jus- 
tice, but it failed, as colored testimony could not be 
received. This same man Finney has a daughter held 
as a slave by Mr. Widen Sheet, of Boone county, 
whom ho values at v*l,O0O. Sixteen armed men re- 
sisted Mr. Finney and an expressman when they went 
for the girl, and beat them cruelly with clubs and 
stones.' 

"An old colored man named Baxter was shot and 
killed by James Roberts for refusing to let Roberts in 
his house. The civil authorities will neither arrest 
nor punish said Roberts, as there is no testimony ex- 
cept of colored persons. (Reported by Thomas Rice, 
Richmond, Kentucky.) 

"Lindsley Taylor, of Richmond, stabbed a negro 
on the 30th of January, for no cause save that the 
negro did not wish Lindsley to search his house. The 
civil authorities tried Taylor and acquitted him. 
(Reported by Thomas Rice, superintendent.) 

"L. L. Pinkcrton, superintendent of Payette county, 
at Lexington, reports that, 'in his and the opinion 
of all whom he has consulted, the freedmen cannot 
receive their just rights without a considerable mili- 
tary force.' 

"C. P. Oyler, Covington, writes: 'The civil ofBcers, 
after the late action of the Kentucky Legislature in 
regard to the Freedmen's Bureau, refused to cooper- 
ate with me, and manifest a disposition to drive the 
bureau out of the State. It will be impossible to 
secure to freedmen their just rights without the aid 
of a military force. Colored people are driven from 
their homes and their houses burned.' 

" William Goodloe writes: 'The counties of Boyle, 
Lincoln, and Mercer are infested with guerrilla bands. 
Outrages are mostly committed upon colored persons. 
The evidence of colored persons is not taken in court. 
I am powerless to accomplish anything without sol- 
diers.' 

" Peter Branford, a returned colored soldier, in 
Mercer county, was shot by James Poore, a white 
man, without cause or provocation. 

"Judge Samuel A. Spencer, of Green county, 
writes : ' A great manyi, olored men are beaten, their 
lives threatened, and tliey refused the privilege of 
returning home because they have been in the Army. 
I cannot accept the agency on account of the action 
of the Kentucky Legislature.' 

" B. P. Ashcraft, of Meade county, writes : ' Rich- 
ard, William, Jesse, and John Shacklett and Martin 
Taylor, returned rebel soldiers, have on different oc- 
casions attacked negroes with fire-arms, and say they 
intend no d— d niggers shall live on this side the 
Ohio.' ' The civil authorities are powerless.' 

"R. AV. Thing, of Warren county, writes: 'An old 
negro was killed by gun-shot while attempting to run 
from a white boy eighteen years of age, to escape a 
whi|>ping.' 

" 'A freedman was attacked in his cabin and shot. 



6 



He and his wife ran to the woods, with bullets flying 
thick and fast around them from five or six revolvers, 
the woman escaping with her life by tearing olf her 
chciin>ie while running, thereby presenting a darker- 
colored mark.' 

" "A woman was stabbed by a white woman in the 
neck, the knife penetrating the windpipe, for giving 
Water to a Union soldier in a tumbler.' 

■■ "A woman and her son were horribly cut and man- 
gled with the lash and then hung by the neck until 
so nearly dead that water had to be thrown in their 
faces to revive them to make them acknowledge that 
they had set a house on fire.' 

" 'A woman received a severe cut in the head from 
a club in the hands of a man, who drove her from 
her homo because her husband had joined the Army.' 

" ' There are several cases of robbery of colored per- 
sons Ijy returned rebels in unifoiin, in Russellville, 
Kentucky. The town marshal takes all arms from 
returned colored soldiers, and is very prompt in shoot- 
ing the blacks whenever an opportunity occurs.' 

" ' I have a case in hand to-day where a white man 
knocked down an old man eighty years of age be- 
cause he asked for and urged the necessity of his pay 
for cutting eight cords of wood.' 

" ' There has been a large number of cases of women 
and children being driven from home on account of 
their husbands enlisting.' 

" ' It is dangerous for colored people to go into 
Logan, Todd, Barren, and the north part of Warren 
counties after their children.' 

'"A freedman's wife left her former master and 
came to live with him, (her husband.) She was fol- 
lowed and shot at.' 

" ' A furloughed soldier of the twelfth United States 
colored artillery was murdered at Auburn, Kentucky, 
while sitting on his bed. The civil authorities do 
nothing in the case.' 

" ' An old freedman in Allen county, Kentucky, was 
shot and killed because he would not allow himself 
to be whipped by a young man.' 

" ■ Major Lawrence, of the seventeenth Kentucky 
cavalry, reports that a negro was shot in one of the 
streets of Kussellville last night. No cause whatever 
for it, Several negroes came to me to know what 
they should do, saying they had been robbed by a 
party of men wearing the confederate Statesuniform. 
The judges .and justices of the peace in almost every 
instance are rebels of very strong prejudices, who 
willnoteven take notice of the most hideous out- 
rages, and if a case is turned over to them they will 
not administer justice. The action of the courts in 
southern Kentucky indicates that the day is far dis- 
tant when a negro can secure justice at the hands of 
the civil law.' 

'■'In Grantcountyabandof outlaws, styling them- 
selves " moderators," made an attack upon the col- 
ored citizens for the purpose of driving them from the 
State. They went late in the night to their homes, 
took them from their beds, stripped and whipped 
them until they were unable to walk.' 

"Colonel William P. Thomasson, of Louisville, 
Kentucky, writes that 'outrages and wrongs upon 
freedmen are numerous, especially upon returned 
colored soldiers. A few nights since a colored soldier 
just mustered out, with his money in his pocket and 
a. new suit of clothes on his back, was waiting for the 
cars at Deposit station, a few miles from Louisville; 
four or liveyoungrowdicsof theplacesetupon him to 
rob him. He was a light-colored man, and one of the 
robbers said to his fellows, "lie is a white man: let him 
alone." A dispute arose as to his color, and he was 
taken into a grocery, a lamp was lit, and the question 
of his color settled. He was then robljed of his money, 
arms, and clothing, was stripi)ed to his shirt, and told 
to run. He did run, and was shot at while escaping, 
and the shot tuok effect in his hand.' 

" I am in daily receipt of similar reports from our 
Bupcrintendenis, judges, slKirilis, and military ollicers. 
Some of the writers dare not be known as giving this 
inlormation, fiMiing assassination as the consequence. 

" For narrating at a freedmen's commission anni- 
versary meeting in Cincinnati, on the IStii ultimo, 
what I had myself seen of brutalities in the 'Blue 
irass,' I have Ix'en denouni'cd in tiio Kentucky IjC- 

islature as a liar and slamlerer. A committee has 

yen appointed to investigate the matter. I have 
rnished them the names of witnesses, and requested 
•it their iiowcrs be enlarged, and they authorized to 



invcstirrate the condition of the freedmen throughout 
the Sta: e ; but I have good reason for believing that 
the comaiittee will simply make a report that Gen- 
eral Fisk is a great liar, and should be removed from 
oflice. &c. It is well to remember that a more select 
number oi' vindictive, pro-slavery, rebellious legisla- 
tors cannit be Ibund than the majority of the Ken- 
tucky Legi lature. The President of the United States 
was denounced in the Senate as a worse traitor than 
Jeflersou L)avis, and that, too, before the bureau tem- 
pest had reached them. 

" The entire opposition is political, a warfare waged 
against loyalty, freedom, and justice. 

"I have endeavored to administer the affairs of 
the bureau in Kentucky precisely as in Tennessee; 
have studied to be conciliatory in every particular, 
and not to interfere in the least with the civil aftairs 
of the State, except my duties and orders impera- 
tively demanded it. As yet, the Legislature have 
enacted no laws securing impartial liberty and right, 
and I very much fear they will not at this session. 
The late letter of Major General Palmer, on Ken- 
tucky affairs, is truthful and candid. I wish her 
good people would heed his counsel and her law- 
makers follow his wise suggestions. 

"There arc many old, infirm, and sick, and or- 
phans in Kentucky who have been thrown upon 
the Government for support. Rations were issued 
to this class in December at a cost of 84,993 56, eight- 
fold the cost of sustaining the same class of persons 
in Tennessee the same month. In the latter State 
the people have much more generously treated the 
unfortunate freedmen, especially the families of 
fallen soldiers, than have the Kentuckians ; hence 
the cause of the increased expense to the Govern- 
ment of providing for the destitute freedmen. Every 
effort is being made to secure homes for the widows 
and orphans in other States. A large number have 
been kindly received and provided for in Ohio and 
Indiana. The Western Freedmen's Aid Commission 
have rendered me valuable service in locating this 
class in comfortable permanent homes. 

"In making this extended report of Kentucky 
affairs I wish nothing to ' extenuate or aught setdown 
in malice.' It is best that you understand the case 
fully. I rejoice that there are so m.any persons in 
the State who treat the freedmen justly and gener- 
ously. Outlaws in different sections of the State, 
encouraged by the pro-slavery press, which daily 
denounces the Government and its officials, nmke 
brutal attacks and raids upon the freedmen, who are 
defenseless, for the civil-law officers disarm the col- 
ored man and hand him over to armed marauders. 
In neither Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
nor Arkansas, where I have had an opportunity of 
observation, does there such a fiendish spirit prevail 
as in some portions of Kentucky. I trust that ere 
long the better portion of thepeoplc will rise in their 
indignation and demand that justice be done to all 
the citizens of the State. 

,"lt has fallen to my lotto officially stand by the 
death-bed of slavery in the United States. Ken- 
tucky's throes are but the expiring agonies of the 
great barbarism. 

"I trust the Government will insist upon strict 
justice for every man, woman, andehild who through 
the lied sea of civil strife has marched from slavery 
to freedom. 

'"1 will try to do my whole duty, regardless of 
denunciations, jeers, and threats of assassination. 1 
will give cheerful heed to your admonitions and 
counsels. 

" While I remain in this position I desire the power 
to protect the poor, the weak, and the ignorant, who 
confidently look to this bureau for the protection 
which the State, made rich by their unrequited toil, 
yet fails to afi'ord them." 

Brigadier GcMieral Sprague, assistant com- 
missioner for Arkansas, on the lOtli of January, 
18GG, writes to the Commissioner: 

"I see by the actof Congress organizing the bureau 
that its existence is limit(Hl to one year after the war. 
If it siiould not l)e extended, there is no hope for the 
freedmen of Arkansas, Texas, and that iiortion of 
tlie South remote fr')ai rai'roads and telegraphs. 
They will be starved, murdered, or forced into a 
condition more horrible tlian the worst stages of 



^avery. Our people's wrath over defeat would be 
poured upon the heads of the helpless ones once their 
slaves. I say this sorrowfully of our people, yet I 
know it is but tootrue — their prejudices give way 
slowly. By extending the existence of the bureau, 
what education and thousht failed to do might be 
supi)lied by an influx of liberal-minded people. 

"This is the language of a citizen whose intelli- 
gence and opportunities forjudging entitle his state- 
ments to consideration. His statements are corrob- 
orated by all the testimony that reaches me from 
other parts of the State, and what is said of the south- 
western portion is in themain true of the whole State. 
I give it as my deliberate opinion that if the military 
was withdrawn from the State not a school for col- 
ored children would be allowed within its borders, 
and I doubt if an unspoken Union man would be 
allowed to remain. In this sparsely settled and iso- 
lated country the process of 'reconstruction' will 
necessarily be slow, and I am sorry to add that the 
influence and example of some of the men who have 
received special pardon was much better before their 
pardon thansince, yet there is a perceptible improve- 
ment in the temper and sentiment of the people at 
large." 

Inspector General William E. Strong, in his 
report of action and observation in Texas, 
says: 

"In the interior of the State, one or two hundred 
miles from the prominent cities, away from the in- 
fluence of Federal troops and Federal bayonets, at 
points where our Army has never penetrated, and 
where the citizens have but little fear of arrest and 
punishment for crimes committed, I assure you there 
is a fearful state of things. The freedmen are in a 
worse condition than they ever were as slaves. When 
they were held in bondagethey were, as a rule, treated 
well ; cases of extreme cruelty were very rare ; it was 
for the interest of the master to take care of them, 
and not to ill-treat them. Now it is quite different ; 
they have no interest in them, and seem to take every 
opportunity to vent their rage and hatred upon the 
blacks. They are frequently beaten unmercifully, 
and s!vot down like wild beasts, without any provoca- 
tion, followed with hounds, and maltreated in every 
possible way. It is the same old story of cruelty, 
only there is more of it in Texas than any southern 
State that I have visited. I could cite many cases 
of cruelty that came under my own observation if it 
were necessary to do so. The planters generally 
seemed discouraged, and insisted that the system of 
free labor would never answer; that the negroes were 
idle and worthless, and showed no disposition to work, 
and were wandering about the country utterly de- 
moralized, and were plundering and stealing indis- 
criminately from the citizens. 

" It was also generally reported by the white people 
that the freedmen failed wholly to fulfill their con- 
tracts, and that when they were needed most to save 
the cotton crop, they would stop their work and leave 
them without any cause whatever. After a careful 
investigation, I do not find these charges against the 
freedmen to be wholly true. 

"The entire crop raised in Texas — cotton, corn.sugar, 
and wheat— was gathered and saved by the 1st of De- 
cember. Most assuredly no white man in Texas had 
anything to do with gathering the crops, except per- 
haps to look on and give orders. Who did the work? 
The freedmen, I am well convinced, had something 
to do with it; and yet there is a fierce murmur of 
complaint against them everywhere that they are 
lazy and insolent, and that there is no hope for a bet- 
ter condition of affairs unless they can be permitted 
to resort to the overseer, whip, and hounds. 

" Two thirds of the freedmen in the section of coun- 
try which I traveled over have never received one 
cent of wages since they were declared free. A few 
of them w;erc promised something at the end of the 
year, but instances of i)rompt payment of wages are 
very rare. Not one in ten would have received any 
compensation forthe labor performedduring the year 
1SG5 had it not been for the rigorous measures resorted 
to by Colonel De Grass, provost marshal general of 
the district of Houston, who sends into the interior 
frequently two hundred miles and arrests the parties 
who have been guilty of cruelty to the freed people, 
and where they have violated their contracts with 
them compels them to make fair and equitable set- 



tlements. Colonel De Grass has a small command of 
cavalry under his control, and he keeps it in motion 
constantly through thecountry, searching for parties 
who have murdered or maltreated the freedmen. I 
cannot speak too highly of the course pursued l)y the 
colonel. Ho displays the same earnestness of purpose 
and fearlessness in the discharge of his duty that ho 
did in the old army of the Tennessee, and although 
his life has been threatened l_iy the chivalric citizens 
of thecountry, yet he is not deterred Ijy tlieir threats 
from discharginghis duty as he understands it. lie 
is a true friend of the black people, and will not see 
them ill-used. I know that some of the lessons which 
he has taught the citizens in the vicinity of Houston 
will not soon be forgotten. 

" I saw freedmen east of the Trinity river who did 
not know that they were free until I told them. Tiiero 
had been vague rumors circulated among them that 
they were to be free on Christmas day, and that on 
New Year's there was to be a grand division of all 
the property, and that one half was to be given to the 
black people." 

In closing his report, General Strong says : 

" In order to correct abuses and regulate the labor 
system thoroughly throughout the country General 
Gregory should have fifty good oificers to assist; and 
if these could be placed on duty at the principal 
villages in the interior, for three hundred and fifty 
miles north of the coast, and a small force of troops 
sent with each assistant to enforce law and order, it 
would be but a short time before a decided improve- 
ment would be observed. 

" It is the opinion of every staunch Union man 
with whom I conversed, and with nearly every offi- 
cer on duty in the State, that if the United States 
troops were removed from Texas no northern man, 
nor any person who had ever expressed any love for 
northern institutions or for the Government of the 
United States, could remain with safety, and the 
condition of the freed people would be worse beyond 
comparison liian it was before the war and when 
they were held in bondage." 

Brigadier General Tillson, acting assistant 
commissioner for Georgia, writes from Au- 
gusta under date January 15, 1866, as follows: 

" In almost every ease, as heretofore reported, the 
withdrawal of troops has been followed by outrages 
on the freed people; their school-houses have been, 
burned, their teachers driven off or threatened with 
death, and the freed people by fraud, and even by 
violence, made to enter into unjust and fraudulent 
contracts. The responsible and educated classes are 
ashamed of these outrages, and loudly and justly 
claim that they should not all be judged by the peo- 
ple who are mean and cruel enough to jiractiee these 
wrongs; but the convictions of the former nevertako 
form in action — seldom in a manly, open protest. It 
requires the most careful nursing and culture to keep 
alive^even a show of justice toward the freed people. 

"Nearly all the females and young men, and all 
the blacklegs and rowdies, are open and defiant in 
their expression of hate for Yankees and negroes. 
The simple truth is, that the only public opinion 
which makes itself felt is as bitter and malignant as 
ever. 

"These are the facts, and any theory or policy which 
disregards or ignores them is of little account, no 
matter by whom advocated or sustained. Unless we 
keep a firm, just, kind hand upon these peeple, all 
our past labor will be thrown away. 

"A large number of troops is not required; but the 
State is one of the largest, and unless small garrisons 
are kept at many points, m'.;t unfortunate results 
will certainly follow; labor will be insecure and un- 
trustworthy, and industrial operations will be sadly 
interfered with. Some of the unpleasant conse- 
quences to be anticipated are already exhibiting 
themselves; as, for instance, the recent attack on the 
garrison at Brunswick. 

" The people who have something to lose begin to 
appreciate the insecurity which follows the with- 
drawal of garrisons, and are asking to have them 
sent back. 

"The highest and best interests of the State, as 
well as of the freed people, require an addition to 
the force now in the department." 



8 



Brigadier General C. 11. Howard, specially 
appointed to examine into the condition ot" 
affairs in Georgia and Florida, in his report 
dated at Charleston, December 30, 1865, states 
at the close of his carefully prepared communi- 
cation to the Commissioner of the bureau, as 
follows : 

"As the result of this tour I beg leave to submit 
the following general considerations: 

"I. Agencies of the United States Government, of 
some sort, similar to the existing bureau agencies, 
:ne for the present indispensable in every part of 
the two States visited. 

"1. Great suffering and starvation would ensue 
among the refugees and freedmen in some sections' 
TVJTC all Government aid withdrawn. 

"2. Public sentiment is such that even should the 
laws bo made impartial the negro could not obtain 
rcdressfor wrongs done him in person or property. 
■'3. There seems to be a moral incapability with 
the white residents to treat him fairly in the ordi- 
nary transactions of business, as, exempli gratia, in 
Hulking contracts. His own inexperience in such 
things, therefore, renders necessary some agency to 
guard his interests. 

"4. Existing theories concerning the education of 
laborers and the prejudice against the blacks aresuch 
;:a absolutely to prevent the establishment of schools 
!or the ireedmen, even though the expenses bo paid 
I)-.- the benevolent associations of the North; and the 
iu Liny successful schools now in operation would be 
b.-oken up in most places on the withdrawal of the 
Government agencies. The same general observa- 
tions will apply to all missionary work by northern 
agents; and from special inquiry and investigation 
of this subject I am convinced that very little in the 
way of moral and religious instruction for the freed 
people is to be expected at present from the members 
iind ministers of the southern churches. On the other 
hand, it is for the interest of the whites for the agen- 
i^iQi to remain, and the better class of thinking men 
expressed themselves unhestatingly in favor of it. 

" (1.) The prevailing want of confidence on the part 
of tlio freedmen in those who have been slaveholders 
makes it necessary to have a third party (and a Uni- 
I'-d States official is better than any other) to induce 
the fieedmcn to enter into contracts. Many of the 
white residents told me that no contracts would have 
been effected but for the bureau officers. 

"(2.) Such agents are needed often to secure the 
fulfillment of contracts on the part of the freedmen, 
both in explaining the exact meaning and force of 
the contract and enforcing it by different motives 
and means. 

"(3.) For the protection of the whites against any 
hostile combinations of the blacks. This will be 
needed as long as the present public sentiment of 
the whites continues, insuring a corresponding dis- 
trust and hostility on the part of the blacks. Our 
agents have done much to allay such ill-feeling; and 
however unreasoningandignorantthefreedmen may 
be in any community, and however much theiramm- 
ber may predominate over the resident whites, they 
will generally heed and be governed by the advice 
of United States officials. 

"II. In order adequately to protect the persons 
and property of the freedmen, and promote their edu- 
cation, as well as for the proper regulation of labor 
for the benefit of all concerned, the present number 
(;f agents should be increased. 

" III. United States troops are at present abso- 
lutely necessary as auxiliary to the agents. 

"1. There is no other means of executing orders 
yi)d insuring justice to the freedmen. 

"2. In many sections United States agents would 
;iot bo tolerated unless backed by military force. I 
v/as assured by respectable and influential residents 
oi' the country in some sections that no northern man 
'ould reside there were it not for the presence of the 
bayonet, and that, in their opinion, such wouhl be 
tin; case for ten years to come. I am not convinced 
of the truth of this statement, yet, with my own 
ob-icrvation, I am led to conclude, 

"3. That the troops should remain for protection 
of northern residents and to encourage emigration. 
"i. As desired by .the better part of the whites, to 
maintain good order and peace. 



5. Wherever United States troops arc withdrawn 
amihtia organization at once springs into life, which 
invariably tends to disturbances between whites and 
blacks, and to the latter is, I am convinced, an un- 
mixed evil." 

General Gregory, in writing from Galveston, 
Texas, December 9, 1865, says : 

" In some portions of the State, and especially is it 
the case where our troops have not been quartered, 
freedmen are restrained from their liberty, and sla- 
very virtually exists the same as though the old sys- 
tem of oppression was still in force. The freedmen 
do not understand their true status, and their former 
masters, although acknowledging them to be free, 
practically deny the truth by their acts. With this 
class of men (and a few of the editors who still con- 
tinue to misrepresent the object for which this bureau 
was instituted)we havemoredifiiculty than any other 
as they refuse to pay the laborer his hire, and it 
seems almost impossible for them to deal justly and 
honestly with him. This is owing, perhaps, to the 
fact that heretofore they havejiad his labor without 
compensating him therefor, in this respect, how- 
ever, there are evidences of improvement, and I 
trust that in the future there will be less cause for 
complaint on this account. They must pay them, 
if they expect to employ 'laborers worthy of their 
hire.' 

" Owing to the vast extent of territory embraced in 
my district, I find great difficulty in procuring a suf- 
ficient number of officers who can render me that 
assistance, a,s sub-assistant commissioners, which is 
necessary to a proper discharge of my official duties. 
But few. comparatively, feel and manifest that inter- 
est in the advancement of the freedmen that they 
should." 

And now, Mr. Speaker, I present some more 
recent proof, dravvn from the oiEcial records 
of the bureau. 

Extracts from a report of Brevet Major G. B. Carse, 
dated Lexington, Virginia, March 18, 1866 : 

"I have the honor to report that during the month 
of February I investigated upward of fifty cases, of 
which many were of considerable importance. Some 
of assaults made upon the freedmen, others in regard 
to^ non-payment of wages for services rendered, &c. 
'The great difiiculty seems to be caused by the 
whites not being willing to pay for the labor after they 
have agreed to do so. 

"I find some cases in which the former owners of 
these people have taken the whole amount of last 
year's hire from the parties to whom they hired their 
slaves during the hiring season of 1804 and 1865. In 
all cases where I have found this to be the case I have 
ordered that payment be made to the freedmen from 
the 10th day of April, 1865, at thesamerates for which 
they were hired previous to the surrender. Many of 
the contracts at that time, i. e., previous to the sur- 
render, were made payable in grain, and I have inva- 
riably caused grain to be paid or its equivalent. 

" An ex-member of the Virginia State Legislature 
drew half of last year's hire forone of hisslaves from 
a man named Tcafbrd, to whom he had liircd his slave 
previous to the surrender, and he has tried to get the 
balance, but the case was brought to my notice, and 
I have ordered Mr. Frazier (ex-member of the Vir- 
ginia Legislature) to pay back the grain taken by 
him as hire from the 10th of April until the 1st of 
July, and i'.lso ordered Mr. Tcaford to pay the freed- 
man the full a mount of grain duefrom tlielst of July 
until the time the freedman in question ceased to 
work for him. 

" I have had a case reported to me in which a col- 
ored man was struck thirty-nine lashes by his former 
owner because ho got an order or statement from 
General Darall last June and took it to his master to 
prove that he was afree man. I will report ihefacts 
in the case as soon as I have heard them from both 
parties. 

"I am more inclined to think the people of the 
surrounding country are less inclined to do justice to 
the freedmen than I was when I arrived here." 

" Unless there is a better disposition on the part of 
the citizens and their sons, and the cadets and stu- 



9 



dents, I will have to send for troops. It seems im- 
possible for these people to understand that the laws 
of tlie United States are supremo here. They seem 
to think nothing should occur or ho said that does not 
accord with their ideas of riglit and wrong, aud that 
an officer of the Government is a thing only to be 
tolerntcd." ******** 

" There does not seem to be any disposition on the 
jiart 0;' the whites to help the aged and infirm 
fioedmcn." 

An official letter of Colonel E. Whittlesey, 
of date March 23, 186G, speaking of North 
Carolina, says : 

" In this connection I may add that under my Cir- 
cular No. 1. several cases of petty larceny have been 
tried by civil courts, and the old barbarous punish- 
ment of whipping been inflicted. I have brought the 
matter before the department commander, and am 
awaiting his action. 

" I am satisfied that the negro has very little chance 
of getting his due before the civil courts of North 
Carolina at present. Still it is desirable to transfer 
ju.risdicUou to them as soon as possible." 

E-ictract from report of J. IF. Alvord, inspector of 
Jinanrff! and fichools, dated Mardi 17, 1S66, Washing- 
ton, IJistrict of Columbia : 

"On my route from Ptichmond to Washington I 
fell in with a striiiing instance of the persecution of 
loyal men in the South. A company of seventy-five 
Quakers, old people, men, women, and little chil- 
dren, were on the train, fleeing from llnndolph county. 
North Carolina, to homes they expected to find in 
the more quiet West. One hundred and twenty-five 
of their number, as they told me, were to follow them. 
They hadbccn settlers in that county for many years; 
peaceabh; and prosperous. But their young men when 
conscripted into the rebel army refused to go, and 
fled as refugees to the mountains. Now, as they come 
back to peaceful employments the returned rebels 
pcrseeiitethe whole community in every possible way, 
disturbing their social comfort, vexing them with 
petty lawsuits, threatening violence, and in some 
eases inflicting it. Their proverbial patience had 
become so exhausted and the fears of their women 
and children so excited that they could endure it no 
longer. Farms and pleasant liomes could not be sold 
under sucli circumstances, but were abandoned, and 
with tlie little money saved by their frugality they 
hope to reach their destination in the State of Indiana. 

"The whole story of this honest, simple-hearted 
people was very touching, enlisting deeply the sym- 
pathy of their fellow-travelers. Their means were 
evidently very scanty and their hearts were sorrow- 
ful. Aged women, unaccustomed to hardship, spent 
the night, from Acquia creek, on the deck floor of the 
crowded steamer, while little babes wailed themselves 
to slumber in :he arms of mothers without their ac- 
customed nourishment. 

"There can be no mistake in such a case. These 
staid, excellent people have not lelt their chosen and 
long-cherished homes without sutTicient reason." 

NORTH CAROLINA. 

From the general report for the month of 
Eebruary, 18G6, of Colonel E. Whittlesey, 
assistant commissioner, the following para- 
graphs are extracted : 

" The instances of petty annoyance and interference 
with the industry aud enterprise of freedmen who are 
trying to do well are numerous. Their horses and 
mules are stolen, their fences torn down, their pigs 
killed, their arms taken away." * '-^ * 

"The apprenticing of children has given rise to 
many abuses and hardships. In some instances the 
civil authorities have undertaken to execute articles 
of indenture. At a single session of the county court 
in Sampson county several hundreds, it is reported, 
were 'bound out' to their former masters, in many 
instances the older children only being selected for 
this service, leaving the young children to be sup- 
ported by their parents. I have directed the assist- 
ant superintendent of that county to proclaim all such 
indentures as are contrary to the regulations of this 
bureau null and void." * * * * * 



" The freedmen are not yet free from apprehension 
that their liberty will prove but a dream. They sec 
so much ill-feeling exhibited toward them and hear 
sooften that they are an inferior race and must always 
expect to be, that they are afraid to trust the whites. 
Could they be sure of full protection everywhere they 
would exert themselves more earnestly to acquire 
property and to improve their condition. Even now, 
with all the discouragements under which they labor, 
there are many cheering signs of progress." 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 

In a report made on the 28th of February, 
1866, by Lieutenant Colonel John Deveraux, 
acting sub-assistant commissioner for Edgefield 
district, to Brevet Major General R. K. Scott, 
assistant commissioner, it is stated as follows: 

"1. The total military force in Edgefield district is 
nineteen enlisted men of the tweuty-tifth Ohio Vet- 
eran volunteers, commanded by a lieutenant, seven 
men of which force arc stationed at Edgefield Court- 
Housc and twelve atllamburg. Edgefield being one 
of tlie largest and most unruly districts in the State, 
this small force is entirely inadequate to exact the 
proper respect for the United States authorities. 

"2. There are two organized bands of outlaws, one 
consisting of eightmen and theotherof thirteenmen, 
led by an ex-confederate major named Coleman, at 
present raiding this district and committing with im- 
punity the most fiendish outrages on Union men and 
negroes. They have murdered a number of negroes 
and one white man without provocation, and robbed 
and driven from their homes several northern men 
who have property here. Coleman, the leader, is a 
desperate character; he has exhibited to several per- 
sons whom I saw, eight ears cut from colored per- 
sons : be carries them in an envelope and shows them 
as trophies." * *. . * * * * * 

" It is my decided opinion that nothing will restore 
the supremacy of the laws and render the lives of 
Union men or freedmen safe in this part of the coun- 
try but the hunting down and extermination of these 
desperadoes by a respectable force of cavalry, as they 
are mounted in the best manner and belong to the 
class miscalled (in the So uth)gentlemen, and no doubt 
are harbored and kept well posted by many of the 
inhabitants." 

From an official brief (made up from reports 
received from the acting sub-assistant commis- 
sioners and agents of the bureau in South Caro- 
lina) transmitted on the IGth instant by Brevet 
Major General R. K. Scott, to the Commis- 
sioner, the following extracts are taken : 

COLLSTON DISTRICT. 

" Here a planter had a man, his wife, and two boys 
under contract. They taking the small-pox through 
being placed in a house where the disease had pre- 
vailed, the planter sent them in a rain storm two 
miles into the woods, and then left them without food 
or clothing to die, although at the time he was in debt 
to them. They remained in the woods three weeks 
in great sutfering until they were accidentally dis- 
covered by a colored man, who took them home and 
provided for them." ****** 

NEWBERRY DISTRICT. 

"The freedmen are subjected to barbarous treat- 
ment by a baud of outlaws. In one instance two freed- 
women were taken from their houses, ravished, and 
otherwise maltreated. It is believed that regularly 
organized bands of outlaws infest some portions of 
the country for the express purpose of persecuting 
the freedmen. Their operations being carried on at 
a distance from the garrisons, which are infantry, it 
is very diflBcult to detect and arrest them, and the 
freedmen seldom dare to complain for fear of greater 
cruelties." * * _ * * * * * * 

"A letter just received from the post commander at 
Greenville Court-House, shows a horrible state of af- 
fairs in that district." * * * * "Withbutfew 
exceptions, and those due to the presence of the Uni- 
ted States troops, the freedmen were turned off the 
plantations without pay for last year's work. The 



10 



contracts for this year show a disposition on tlie part 
of the planters to reduce wages to the lowest possible 
figure, and in very many eases to obtain, by deceit, 
the services of freedmen on terms far worsp than 
notliinfe'." * * * * •■■ * * * * 

" Cruelty and even death of freedmen at the hands 
v")f white civilians, are not uncommon occurrences. 
One party boasted to prominent men of the district 
that he had shot twenty-eight freedmen since 'the 
surrender' and offered his services to kill others if 
there were any particularly otfensive to the commu- 
nity." * •■■ * * "One boy coming back to 
the plantation after having been away with United 
States troops, was in the presence of the other freed- 
men of the place deliberately shot, but he being only 
wounded thereby, a rope was placed round his neck 
when he was choked until dead." 

GEORGIA. 

From a letter received February 7, 1866, by 
the Commissioner from General Tillson, assist- 
ant commissioner, the following paragraphs are 
extracted: 

"The people of the State, who generally at first 
were strongly opposed to giving reasonable wages, 
influenced by the judicious course of the bureau, are 
exhibiting a readiness to pay the freed people fair 
wages. Very many say that their prospects were 
never so good before, and that the freed people were 
doing admirably." * * * * "Whenever 
it could be brought to bear on such people (i. c, plant- 
ers complained of in remote parts of the State) with- 
out an exception, the kind, conciliatory, but immov- 
ably firm course pursued by the bureau has induced 
them to change their intentions and act in a.iu3t and 
sensible manner." 

FLORIDA. 

Accompanying Colonel Osborne's (assistant 
commissioner) report of the condition of freed- 
men" s affiiirs in Florida, for the month of Feb- 
ruary, is a report from Lieutenant Quentin, 
sub-assistant commissioner in charge of bureau 
affairs for the counties of Madison, Taylor, and 
La Layette. From the record of Lieutenant 
Quentin' s report the following is extracted : 

"This officer makes a generally favorable report 
of the condition and disposition of the freed people, 
and states that the better class of whites seem to be 
very well disposed toward the freedmen, although 
the lower class of whites are found to be quarrelsome 
toward tbeir laborers, as well as abusive and greedy. 

"There is so wide a difference between employer 
and employe in respect to their ability to transact 
ordinary business and to comiirehend the force of a 
contract, and so great a desire rapidly to repair losses 
and regain fortunes, and withal so little desire on the 
part of employers to see the freedmen rise in any re- 
spect, that unless an enlarged benevolence is to gov- 
ern in the settlements at the close of the year, little 
will have been accomplished for the colored man 
except to arouse him from a not too trusting confi- 
dence to an unpleasant and unconquerable suspicion." 

LOUISIANA. 

From a report made March 0, 18GG, to Brevet 
Major General Baird, assistant commissioner, 
by .James Cromie, captain and brevet major 
twelfth Veteran Reserve corps: 

"I would also respectfully report that the number 
of colored persons in this (Calcasieu) parish before 
the jtassagc of the ordinance of secession in this State 
wa.s sixteen hundred, and from the information which 
I have received 1 believe theie are at the present 
time twelve hundred. There arc some white inhab- 
itants who still insist upon holiling these freedmen 
in (heir former state of bondage. Those citizens 
reuiaining in f^ake Charles and vicinity desire very 
much to liave an agent of the bureau sent to them in 
order to rcgulntc the employment of freedmen, and 
also in regard to the various question constantly 
arising among them under the new order of atlairs , 



connected with the emancipation of their former 
I slaves." 

TEXAS. 

From the report of Brevet Brigadier General 
E. M. Gregory, assistant commissioner, of date 
February :^S, 18GG: 

"I have the honor to report that from all sources 
information comes of encouraging results from the 
efibrts of this bureau. Complaints are few, and its 
beneficent results frequently and frankly acknowl- 
edged. Fault-finding and accusation come only from 
that class of men who arc but slowly learning to 
respect law, justice, and the rights of man, and who 
sullenly chate under the restraints of a Government 
that sets metes and bounds to their unbridled wills." 

* * * * :;t * :^ * :i: * 

"There are no indications of an increase of loyal 
sentiment in the State, though thercisa visible abate- 
ment in the number and harshness of those cases of 
outrage and maltreatment coming under the cogni- 
zance of the bureau." 

MISSISSIPPI. 

The following are extracts from a report sub- 
mitted January 12, 18G6, to Colonel Samuel 
Thomas, assistant commissioner, by Captain 
J. H. Matthews, sub-assistant commissioner, 
stationed at Magnolia, Mississippi : 

" On the 15th day of December,1865, a negro reported 
at my office and informed me that his former master, 
Mr. Felix Allen, of Pike county, had sent him into 
Amite county, Mississippi, on business, and that he 
would call and see me on his return. On the ensuing 
day he returned tomy ofljce.most shamefully beaten, 
and stated that after he had performed liis mission 
with Mr. Allen's son-in-law, he lodged for the night 
in the quarters on the place by direction of Mr. Allen's 
son-in-law; that while in bed about eleven o'clock 
p. m. some six or seven white men came and bursted 
into the house, and with pistols drawn asked him 
what he was doing there, when he informed them 
that he was sent there by Mr. Allen, his master, and 
that if they would go with him to the white folks' 
house he would prove his statement; but 'no,' they 
told him, 'we don't care a damn for that, we want vou 
to go with us.' When they had taken this man about 
a mile they were met by about fifty armed mounted 
men (supposed to be militia, and commanded by a 
man they called ' lieutenant') who ordered them to 
take him (the negro) off from the road and give him 
a fiogging; and when they had proceeded about fifty 
yards from the road they threw him down and six or 
seven of them jumped into his face and bosom with 
their heels, stamping and kicking him. 

When this old negro (he was apparently sixty or 
sixty-five years old) returned to my office, he pre- 
sented a most frightful appearance, his breast bone 
broken, and he spitting blood." * * * 

" I respectfully invite your attention to a murder 
committed by one John II. McGee, some nine months 
since, which would challenge the world for an equal 
in studied brutality, which was reported to me some 
time since, but for want of facts I did not feel war- 
ranted in reporting before. The negro was murdered, 
beheaded, skinned, and his skin nailed to the barn. 
Should this affair be investigated, I would refer you 
to Mr. Bunkly, at Bunkly's Ferry, who can give the 
names of parties knowing to the ifacts." 

::■■ * ::: ^- -.i^ iit H; :f/: ^ ^ 

"Should they (the freedmen) remain where they 
aro,underexistingcireumstances, their condition will 
not only be rendered worse than slaves, but the safety 
for the lives and the hopes for the future of this un- 
fortunate race will depart forever." 

The following report is dated Washington, 
I\larch 27, 18G(i, from the assistant commis- 
sioner, General C. H. Howard, to Major Gen- 
eral 0. O. Howard, concerning Maryland : 

General; I have the honor to submit the follow- 
ing partial report, in compliance with your circular 
dated March 2, ISiJLi, concerning the status of the 
freedmen in Maryland: 



11 



statute discriminations against the negroes on ac- 
count of color. . . 

1. No colored witness can testify in eases involving 
conflicting interests between white and black. 

2 A negro convicted of an offense the punishment 
of which if committedby a white man would be con- 
finement in the penitentiary, may be at the aiscre- 
tion of the court sentenced to receive not exceeding 
forty lashes. ^ ^ a 

3. A negro hiring to a white man for a term ana 
refusing to enter his service, but hiring himsclt to 
another, unless it appear that Ins wages wouk be 
insecure, or that he received impr9per treatment 

X from the first, two fifths of his wages in the hands ot 
his second employer shall accrue as a hen tothenrst. 

4. For a negro to belong to any secret society i* a 
felony— the punishment a flue oi fifty dollars. . 

5. No education of colored apprentices is required. 
(Practically, too, the provision ot the law requiring 
that the parents of children shall be summoned, and 

■^ their consent to the indenture obtained, or that their 
inability to provide for their fhildren is shown, is in 
a majority of cases ignored.) 

6 In Anne Arundel and Somerset counties, license 
to deal in merchandise cannot be obtained by a 
negro, Snless recommended by a certain number of 
respectable freeholders. No white person, the part- 
ner of a negro, shall be granted a license; audit a 
white man employ a colored clerk, the penalty is 
fifty dollars. , ,, t, 

7 In Charles county, no negro shall have or use 
any sail or row boat without license from ajustice 
of the peace. ^ 

8. In Kent and Queen Anne counties, free ne- 
groes" that leave the counties and return shall be 
punished by fine and imprisonment. 

9 In Prince George county, (filth district,) negroes 
are not to assemble under pretense of public worship, 
I except on certain days named in thestatute. andgcn- 
erally it appears that the organic law ot the btate 
is not such as to prevent discrimination against the 
rights of the negro, by county or other local author- 
ities. A State official writes from Annapolis, i eb- 
ruary 1-t, 18G6, as follows : " The colored people have 
no protection; the white rowdies pick a chance when 
no white person is about to maltreat the treedmen, 
and because the colored people cannot testify against 
them, the rowdies go free. Where the negro is con- 
cerned it is very difiicult to findajury to convict the 
aggressor if he be a white person. I think the .nms- 
diction of the bureau should be extended to Mary- 
land as soon as possible." 

At the last sitting of the grand jury in Annapolis a 
magistrate was indicted for putting a white man who 
had assaulted and beaten a colored woman under 
bonds to keep the peace, on the complaint and afli- 
davit of the woman, who came with the scars of the 
beating upon her person. At the same place, in No- 
vemlaer 1865, a colored woman was sentenced to be 
sold for two years for persuading her children to leave 
their former master, to whom they were apprenticed. 
The children had secured places to work, and their 
wages for the year would have amounted to i^tOO. 
» In Prince George county a colored man named J or- 

-'' don Diggs had four of his children taken from him 
and bound by his old master, against his consent and 
protest. The names of the children were included in 
a contract to labor for the present year, the wages 
amounting to $300, 

January 17, 186(5, Charlotte Turner, colored, makes 
affidavit that William Preston, of Howard county, 
holds her children, Frank and Charles, aged respect- 
ively ten and nine years, illegally and against her 
consent. 

February 5, 1866, Amos Hunt, a white resident of 
AVashington, testifies that on theSd of the same month 
he accompanied Sandy Henson, colored, toSurratt's, 
in Prince George county, to visit his (Henson s) 
daughter; that on his arrival at the place Henson 
was met by threats of violence and death by the man 
with whom his daughter is living, and was compelled 
to return without seeing her. ,, . , , 

Richard Butler, colored, of St. Mary s county, tes- 
tifies thnt he was assaulted and beaten without cause 
by one John A. Lloyd. Robert Avery, a constable, 
was present, and did not interfere to protect him or 
preserve the peace. , i , ^ 

February 7, 1866, Essex Barbour, colored, late a 



soldier in the thirtieth regiment United States colored 
troops, makes affidavit that on the 3d ot the same 
month he was assaulted and beaten at Chaptico,_bt, 
Mary's county, by four white men, one ot whom is a 
returned rebel soldier, and makes it his business to 
injure colored people, more especially colored sol- 
diers, at all times and places. I have defended the 
country in the field, and most respectfully request 
that I may be protected at home." i „f ot 

February 17, 1866, Richard bpeake, colored, ot St. 
Mary's county, complains of his employer, who, on the 
16th of that month, assaulted and beat hira seriously. 
March 19, 1866, Maria Hutchinson, colored, com- 
plains and testifies that at Nottingham, Prince (^eorgo 
county, on the 9th instant, her husband, Henry 
Hutchinson, late a colored soldier, was assaulted and 
seriously beaten by several white men; that her hus- 
band gave no cause of oflense except a,sking one ot 
the men if he had accused him of stealing; and that 
her husband is now confined in jail at Marlborough 
to answer a charge of having threatened the lite ot 
one of his assailants. ^, ^t, x 

Philip Brown, colored, complains under oath that 
he was assaulted by a white man, in Montgomery 
countv, on the 22d instant, while crossing the farm 
of the" latter, and that he was shot at and wounded 
in the head by the same white man while riding qui- 
etly along the public highway on the evening ot the 
same day. He has been a soldier; and when shot he 
heard a companion of the man who shot him say, 
"Shoot the d— n son of a b— h; ho is nothing. but a 
Union soldier." 

The .above arespecimensof many similar .afiidayits 
regarding outrages in Maryland received at this oflice. 
The present civil law and its administration are found 
to be practically, and it may be said totiiUy, inade- 
quate to protect the negro in his rights of person and 
property. For example, often in these assaults upon 
the negro by the white man colored witnesses only 
are present, and the testimony of colored men is not 
received when a white man is involved. Hence an 
indictment of the guilty party in the case is impos- 
sible. 

The opposition to the efforts to educate the colored 
people in Maryland is bitter and wide-spread. Teach- 
ers have been stoned and blackened, and indignation 
meetings held and resolutions passed to drive them 
out. School-houses have been burned; colored 
churches, too, h.avc been destroyed to prevent col- 
ored schools being opened in them. 
Respectfully submitted, ^ ^ HOWARD. 

Brevet Brigadier General, Assistant Commissioner. 
And now, Mr. Speaker, I will show that the 
existing law is not snfficient for the protection 
of these men. I have already said that the 
law was passed before the great amendment of 
the Constitution was ratified and made effect- 
ive. It applied to those who were then freed- 
men from rebel States or from districts em- 
braced in the operations of the Army. There 
were no freedmen excepting those made such 
by State action or by the proclamation of Mr. 
Lincoln. What control or supervision does 
that law in its terms authorize over men sub- 
sequently declared free but who were then in 
bondage? It is not a sufficient answer to say 
that from the necessity of the case it has been 
demanded of the Government that all freed- 
men should be deemed to be under the care of 
the bureau. So, indeed, in the absence of legis- 
lation it was demanded. No sane m.an can 
doubt that in Maryland and in Kentucky it was 
the duty of the Government to stand between 
the freedman and those who would oppress 
him. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, upon examination of the 
existing law it will be found that in its terms it 
was de°signed to apply to those persons who 



12 



were made free by military proclamation, 
"Freedmeti from rebel States or from any dis- 
trict of country within the territory embraced 
in the operations of the Army." No persons 
were such freedmen who had not been held in 
bondage by traitor owners in arms against the 
Government, or who had not been declared 
free within the terms of Mr. Lincoln's jjrocla- 
niation. In-eedmen of Kentucky, Maryland, 
Missouri, and of such portions of Louisiana 
and Tennessee as were declared free by law, 
and not by military order, would not be em- 
braced within the direct provisions of that law. 
The supervision and care of these men have 
been purely military and outside of the pro- 
visions of the law. But this should not be, 
nov/ that Congress can act, clothed as they are 
with the power and loaded with the duty con- 
ferred and imposed by the second section of the 
amendment. It is a Avork which Congress 
ought to regulate and direct. How can we 
answer to constituent or to country if we will- 
fully ignore our duty toward these men? 

Mr. Speaker, I conjure the members of this 
House to examine the law and to consider this 
argument I present to prove the necessity of 
further legislation. 

But this argument does n'ot stand alone. The 
existing law gives to the bureau the management 
of "all abandoned lands ;" and the fourth sec- 
tion is as foUov/s : 

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted. That the Com- 
missioner, under the direction of tlie President, shall 
have authority to set apart, for the use of loyal refu- 
gees and freedmen, such tracts of land within the 
insurrectionary States as shall have been abandoned, 
or to which the United States shall have acquired 
title by confiscation or sale, or otherwise; and to 
every male citizen, whether refugee or freedman as 
aforesaid, there shall be assigned not more than ibrty 
acres of such laud, and the person to whom it was so 
assigned shall be protected in the use and enjoyment 
of tlie land for the term of three years at an annual 
rent not exceeding six per cent, upon the value of 
such land as it was appraised by the State authori- 
ties in the year 18G0 for the purpose of taxation : and 
incase no such appraisal can be found, then the rental 
shall be based upon the estimated value of tiie land 
in said year, to be ascertained in such manner as the 
Commissioner may by regulation prescribe. At the 
end of said term, or atany time during said terra, the 
occupants of any parcels so assigne<l may purchase 
the land and receive such title thereto as the United 
States can convey, upon paying therefor the value 
of the land as ascertained and fixed for the purpose 
of determining the auaual rent aforesaid." 

Under this section, most of the abandoned 
property which had been held by Treasury 
agents, and the confiscable lands and aban- 
doned plantations, were placed, by order of 
the President, under the care of the bureau. 
The law intended that lands should be leased 
or sold to refugees and freedmen. The prop- 
erty was to be controlled by tlie bureau, and 
held not only as a means of support to freed- 
men but of revenue to the Government. It 
was intended that this bureau should sustain 
itself; and those men who knew most about 
the willingness of Ireedmen to work and the 
productiveness of lands abandoned, felt as- 
sured that not. one dollar of money would be 
lost to the Government by the operation of the 



bureau. The Commissioner, in his report at 
the beginning of the session, says : 

"From one to ten thousand acres in each of the 
several States have been used as colonies for vagra»t 
and destitute freedmen. In South Carolina, Georgia, 
and Florida some land, the exact amount of which 
has been reported, has been actually divided and 
assigned to freedmen as contemplated in the act es- 
tablishing the bureau. In these States the policy of 
setting apart lands for freedmen was initiated ante- 
rior to the establishment of the bureau, and under 
Field Orders No. 15, issued by Major General Sher- 
man. A comparatively insignificant amount of town 
property is used as quarters for teachers and officers ' 
connected with the bureau, and as hospitals. With 
these exceptions, all property in the hands of the 
bureau is held as a means of revenue. 

" Shortly after the organization of the bureau, par- 
ties whose property was held by it commenced to 
apply for restoration of their former rights. The 
policy first adopted by the bureau was to return es- 
tates to those only who could show constant loyalty, 
past as well as present— a loyalty which could not be 
established by the mere production of an oath of 
allegiance or amnesty. As the bureau held property 
byauthority of an act of Congress for certain definite 
purposes, it was sujiposed that this tenure must con- 
tinue to exist until those purposes were accom- 
plished; that property must be surrendered only 
when it was evident that the control over it was 
unauthorized and improper. 

"This course did not meet with the approval of 
the President, who gave orders that a pardon, either 
by special warrant or the provisions of his amnesty 
proclamation, entitled the party pardoned to demand 
and receive immediate restoration of all his prop- 
erty except such as had been actually sold under a 
decree of confiscation. Shortly after this decision 
was made known Circular No. 15, dated September 
12, 1865, was issued from the bureau, and embodying 
the provisions of the act of Congress establishing it, 
promulgated for the first time definite rules regard- 
ing the restoration of this property to former owners. 

"Authority to restore was vested in the assistant 
commissioners of the bureau. They were directed to 
turn over at once all property held as abandoned 
upon its appearing to their satisfaction that it did 
not fall within the terms of the definition laid down 
in the act approved July 2, 1864. They were also 
directed to restore property, when application was 
made for it, through the superintendents of the dis- 
tricts in which it was situated, accompanied by proof 
of claimant's title and of his jjardon, either by special 
warrant or the terms of the proclamation of amnesty 
of.May 29, 1865. It was provided, however, that land 
cultivated by refugees or freedmen should be retained 
until the growing crops were gathered unless the 
owner made full compensation for the labor expended 
and its products. 

"Under ihe provisions of this circular the work 
of restoration has progressed very rapidly, and it is 
probable that when the year terminates little or no 
property will remain under control of the bureau." 

Now, Mr. Speaker, the bureau has not j'et 
been in operation one year. And yet the 
greater part of the abandoned and confiscable 
lands in all tlie rebel States which had been in 
the actual possession of the Commissioner, and 
substantially all valuable for cultivation, have 
been taken from liim and restored to their 
former owners. Unless Congress shall act, 
where then are these men to be protected, 
and how can the Ijureau be made to support 
itself? 

Let me give you one statement to show how 
this abandoned property was used. The assist- 
ant commissioner of the State of Mississippi, 
in his report of the 2d of January, 1866, says 
as follows: 

" I wish to present a comidete statement of the 
workings of the Davis's Bend colony for the year. 



13 



"The laud was divided and leased, houses built, 
and a system of government organized as reported to 
you in previouscommunications. The people worked 
well, and havo shown by their industry, perseverance, 
and management that they arc capable of doing busi- 
ness for themselves, and will do best where the greatest 
encouragement is held out of future reward. 

" There were on the Bend one hundred and eighty- 
one companies or partncrsliips who received land. 
These comprised thirteen hundred adults and four 
hundred and fifty children. About five thousand 
acres of land were divided among them. These peo- 
ple were left free to manage their own affairs ; not 
even officers of the bureau were allowed to meddle 
with the pecuniary or domestic affairs. They have 
produced — 

Corn, 12,000 bushels, worth at least S12,000 

Vegetables, potatoes, melons, ifcc, sold 38,500 

Cotton, 1,736 bales 347,200 

Total amount of receipts 397,700 

Paid for expenses S1C0,000 

Paid to white partners for stock, sup- 
plies, &o 60,000 

Paid receiving and disbursing officer 
of Freedmen's Bureau, for rations 
drawn.. 18,500 

Total disbursements 238,500 

• Balance in hands of colonists $159,200 



"The people have raised their own crops, made 
their own sales, and put the money in their pockets; 
none of it passed through the hands of white people 
or officers of the Government of any department. 
The only opportunity there has been for any cheat- 
ing has been in the settlement made with white 
parties who furnished supplies. We have guarded 
this in every way possible, and demanded that set- 
tlements should be made before our bureau officers. 
"The home farm of tivo hundred acres was culti- 
vated by transient people thrown upon our hands, 
and by those who were, from any cause, unable to 
procure land. 
Keceipts from home farm, for two hundred and 

thirty-four bales of cotton $48,859 SO 

Paid to freed people for work by 

superintendents during the year S6,850 

Paid to superintendents on all the 
plantations on the Bend, year's 

work 5,993 

Paid for ginning, baling, and pick- 
ing 4,675 

Paid for freight, commissions, rc- 
IJacking, &c 5,410 

Total expenses 22,930 00 

Amount turned over to receiving and dis- 
bursing officer 25,929 80 

If to this amount we add amount received 
by said officer for rations issued colored 

planters 18,500 00 

* ^-^^^^^—^^ 

* It will show the total amount received by 

the bureau from the home farm and the 
colonists S44.429 80 



" Five thousand bushels of corn were raised on the 
home farm and fed to Government stock, which was 
in use for the benefit of the people. 

"The experiment has been a grand success, and 
proves what the people can do. I regret that they 
cannot havo the opportunity of cultivating the same 
lands this season. Four of the plantations have been 
returned to the owners; the organization of the col- 
ony is broken up, and the people advised to seek 
einployment and business elsewhere. I still retain 
the Davis plantations, and will lease them this year, 
but will charge the people a moderate rent, and not 
allow them to havo the land free, as was done during 
1865." 

And here, sir, is a statement showing amount 
of money received and disbursed in the Bureau 
of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lauds 



for the State of Mississippi, at Vicksburg, from 
June 1, to December 31, 1865 : 
Disbursed 1865. 

June. Expenditures for June $2,576 71 

Balance to July 4,243 86 

July. Expended in July $4,245 09 

Balance to August 4,216 17 

$8 ,461 86 

August. Expended in August $4,599 08 

Balance to September 5.480 46 

$10,079 54 



Sept. Expended in September $5,179 42 

Balance to October 8,572 74 

$13,752 16 



October. Expended in October $4,284 52 

I3alance to November 10,547 47 



$6,223 25 



Nov. Expended in November J;3,328 2-5 

Balance to December 7,423 22 

$10,751 47 

Expended in December $5,055 64g 

Vouchers due and remaining un- 
paid 2,115 49 

Balance due Freedmen 's Bureau, 53,496 92i- 



Dec. 



$60,668 06 



June. 
July. 



Received 1865. 
Amount on hand last statement... $306 22 
Amountreceived during month 5,854 ;5o 



Amount from June 30 $4,243 86 

Amountreceivedduringmonth 4,218 00 

Errorinbringingforwardbalauce.. $8,461 83 



August. Amount from July $4,216 17 

Amountreceivedduringmonth 5,863 37 

$10,079 54 



j Sept. Amount from August $5,480 46 

Amountreceivedduringmonth 8,271 70 



$13,752 16 



October. AmountfrornSeptember $8,572 74 

Amountreceivedduringmonth 6,223 25 



Nov. 



Dec. 



Amount from October $10,547 47 

Amountreceived during month 204 00 



$10,751 47 



Amount from November $7,423 22 

Amountreceivedduringmonth 53,244 04 



$60,668 06 



Recapitulation. 

Amount on hand June 30, 1865 $06G 22 

Amount received from all sources 83,897 51 



Total receipts 84,845 73 

Total expenditures 31,348 80.V 



Remaining in hands of receiving and dis- 
bursing officer $53,496 02.i 



Colonel Whittlesej', assistant commissioner 
for North Carolina, at the close of his first 
quarterly report gives the following statement 
of the financial condition of his department: 

" The financial condition of the bureau is clearly 



14 



presented in the reports of Captain James, who, in 
addition to his duties as superintendent of tlic east- 
ern district, has acted as financial agent, witli the 
assistance of Captain Seoly, assistant quartermaster. 
The duties of the department have been very prreat, 
and have been faithfully discharged by these officers. 
In July, Colonel Heaton, agent of the United States 
Treasury, turned over to the bureau a large amount 
of real estate in Wilmington, Newbern, and adjoin- 
ing counties, which had been leased for terms vary- 
ing from one month to one year, The collection of 
rents from several hundred lessees of tenements and 
farms has been a laborious work. But the exami- 
nation and adjustment of claims for this property, 
and the restoration of it in accordance with the Pres- 
ident's amnesty proclamations, has been more trying 
and perplexing. Nearly all, however, is now out of 
our hands, and unless a reexamination of these claims 
is forced upon us by applications for rents, on the 
ground that the property was not abandoned, we 
shall be able hereafter to devote allot our time to 
our appropriate work. 

"The foUowingsumrnary of operations presents the 
leading facts to the foregoing report: 

Receipts for the quarter $44,913 24 

Current expenses $4,350 34 

For soUliers' families from bounty 

fund 7,977 25 

Remitted to Treasury ; 21,584 17 

33,911 76 

Balance credited October 1, 1SC5 §11,001 48 



"Farms, 128; acres on f^-ms cultivated, 8,540; acres 
of pine lands worked, aSfout 50,000; freedmen em- 
ployed on farms, (),102; .'contracts witnessed, 257; 
freedmen employed under theui, 1,847; marriages 
registered, 512; orphans apprenticed, 42; schools es- 
tablished, 63; teachers employed, 85; scholars at- 
tending, 5.642; cases of crime reported for trial, 12; 
cases of ditficulty settled, reported in full, 257; cases 
not reported in writing_, several thousand; rations 
issued, 508,924; value of, $106,365 11 ; hospitals, 14; sick 
in hospitals, &c., attended by direction of the bureau, 
54,441; deaths, whole number of freedmen reported, 
in hospitals, camps, and towns, atljoining, 2,680. 

"Reports of sick and deaths embrace all cases in 
the vicinity of stations, and with which the bureau 
has in any way been connected. 

""Estimated crops: cotton, 858,700 pounds; corn, 
32,715 bushels: sweet potatoes, 1,000 bushels; turpen- 
tine, 5,700 barrels; tar, 5,808 barrels." 

So it is, Mr. Speaker, that the lands and 
sources of support and of revenue have gone 
from the bureau. I state the fact to be from 
the experience of less than one year that 
wherever the experiment has been tried with 
reasonable fairness the freedmen have demon- 
strated that the able-bodied men and women 
have not only supported themselves, but have 
been able to pay over to the Government in 
rent and produce substantially enough to pro- 
vide for the old, the infirm, and the disabled. 

And now, what should Congress do? If we 
will not act, or if having done all we can, no 
bill can be approved or passed, one of two 
courses must he pursued — eitJier the power 
must be assumed of obtaining lands by lease 
or otherwise for the uses of freedmen, or else 
arrangements must be made by which freed- 
men aljlc to work maj'^ find employment upon 
plantations and in the homes of former masters 
or owners of lands vv'ho have moved from north- 
ern States. 

But neither Congress nor President could 
properly permit the bureau to purchase or 
to lease lands without the authority of law, 
and so it will cotno to this, that when, as will 
soon be the case, no lands are left wilhia the 



control of the Commissioner, all freedmen, old 
and young, able to work, or disabled by 
wounds, infirmity, or disease, must be pro- 
vided for in some way or other uj)On lands 
owned, occuj^ied, and improved for the per- 
sonal profit of private owners. 

Now, such owners will not want upon their 
farms useless laborers. They will not receive 
the men who have lost their arms or legs in 
your defense. They will not want feeble wo- 
men, nor the old or infirm, or the children too, 
young to vt'ork. Especially they will not want"- 
those who are disabled by disease. Do you 
not see that all this multitude of non-producers 
must be a dead weight upon the Government? 
What will the Commissioner do with them? 
Where will he put them? You have freed them 
and their old owners do not want them. Where 
shall they go ? What shall they do ? There 
will be cases where the necessities of labor will 
compel land-owners to permit disabled parents 
to remain and to be fed upon their farms while 
the working season lasts in order to secure the 
services of the able-bodied sons. But those 
cases will be exceptional, and we have no right 
to take them into our consideration. 

With lands assigned to the bureau where 
homes may be allotted to the freedmen and 
reasonable rents received from them, with rights 
secured to them to purchase upon fair terms, 
the able-bodied freedmen will take care of all 
their sick and their disabled, and will put into 
the Treasury of the Government enough to de- 
fray all the charges of this bureau. And now, 
if it be said by any one who claims that this is 
the white man's country, or by anybody else, 
that such a policy as this would disturl) labor 
and prevent the plantations from being worked 
because freedmen would j^refer their own home- 
steads to anybody's farm, the answer is obvious. 
This cannot be so if wages are offered which 
fairly pay for the work to be done. There is 
not a man upon the floor of this House that 
does not see in his own every- day experience 
this absurd argument refuted. If the freedman 
can jjay his rent and keep his family together, 
old and young, and clear for himself twenty 
dollars a month, he will not willingly work for 
another man for eight or ten. Why should he ? 
But give him the worth of his labor, and he 
will go quickly enough, and the women and the 
old men who cannot get wages will work his 
little land and stay at home. This is the law 
>)f labor. We all have the services of men 
who live at their homes when not at work ; and 
so, as a general fact, has every northern house- 
holder. And those men employed all over the 
North are among the men who send us here 
and keep their eye upon us while we are here. 
Does any one know this fact better than the 
President knows it? 

Now, sir, the same law of labor will hold 
good at the South as prevails at the North. 
The trouble is, that where for generations la- 
bor has been forced ; where the minimum 
amount of food and clothing, without other 
pay, has been made to jn'oducc the maximum 



^^ M l\ A 



15 



amount of work, those who employ hibor are 
not willing to pay the fair value of labor. But 
when on the cotton plantation the land-owner 
is prepared to pay for skilled labor what it 
is tiiirly ivorth to the man who does the work, 
lie will find willing hands to cultivate his staples. 
Buttliereis another consideration which neither 
President nor Congress will feel disposed to 
disregard. " A fiiir day's pay for a fair day's 
work," is the golden rule of labor. In South 
Carolina there were at the last census of white 
population 201,388, and of colored population 
412,320, of whom only 9,914 were free. There 
were in that State 10,217,700 acres of land, of 
which only 4,072,651 acres were improved. 
That land was owned by the white men. Here 
and there exceptional cases occurred ;_ whether 
according to law or against the provisions of 
law I do not stop to in'qnire. But it is said that 
some men of African descent did own both 
land and slaves. But the . rule was otherwise. 
The white men owned the laud; the black men 
gave it its value. 

But now a new condition of things is cre- 
ated by our own act. Every man is made free. 
There is no longer ownership of labor. Every 
fair man admits that these four hundred thou- 
sand freedmen, declared free first by military 
order and then by sacred enactment, must be 
for a season protected by the Government 
which released them from bondage. Would 
our duty be discharged; would the President 
who has felt through his whole life the oppress- 
ive power of southern capital ; would he be- 
lieve that we had discharged our duty if we say 
to the Commissioner of this bureau we will not 
give you any lands to work with ; but take care 
of these freedmen ; see that the gulf which sep- 
arates servitude from freedom is bridged over 
somewhat, and aid their unaccustomed steps 
until they stand firmly upon that land of prom- 
ise which we have opened to them? _ Find 
employment for them all, and see to it they 
have fair play ; but especially see to it that 
the Government incurs no cost. Would that 
do? Where could you find employment at 
fair wages, and how could your Commissioner 
secure it to them ? If you compel them to work 
upon the old plantations, under the old owners, 
in tlie old homes, giving them no hope in life 
and no choice of labor but to work there or to 
expatriate themselves and seek homes in other 
States, do you not see that the price of wages 
must be at the discretion of the owner of the 
land? If you compel the freedman to work 
there, what wages they will give he must take, or 
you must support him, or he must starve. But 
give to your Commissioner the power to pro- 
cure lands for them; the freedmen will pay fair 
rent and will from their labor defray the ex- 
penses of your bureau, and will thankfully pay 
full price for the lands which you may sell 
them. And when such opportunities are given 
them you will yourselves make that golden rule 
of labor operative, and a fiiir day's pay for a 
fair day's work will be secured. My friends, 
is not this very plain? And I say to you nov/, 



and I would that every voting man in all your 
districts could hear what I say, that whatever 
else you may do you cannot "enforce" that 
great amendment by any legislation more "ap- 
propriate' ' than this. 

But you see at once, Mr. Speaker, that the 
present law, passed before the people of the 
loyal States by their Legislatures ratified the 
amendment which you offered to them, is 
wholly insufficient in this respect. The lands 
provided for them by that law have passed sub- 
stantially, excepting the Sherman lands which 
I will speak of presently, into the hands of 
their former owners. And your committee 
believed that upon a fair statement of existing 
facts you would not hold them guiltless if they 
did not propose some plan that would— with- 
out one dollar of cost to the Government, as 
we believe— in some small measure make real 
to these freedmen the liberty you have vouch- 
safed to them. Wo owe something to these 
freedmen, and this bill rightly administered, 
invaluable as it will be, will not balance the 
account. We have done nothing to them, as 
a race, but injury. They, as a people, have 
done nothing to us but good. The friends of 
slavery say we Christianized the African, and 
therefore we gave him blessing and not a curse. 
We enslaved him. That is what we did. If 
the African has become Christian in America 
he may thank God, not us. So Booth murdered 
Gur President. His fatal ball opened the avenue 
through which the spirit passed, and Lincoln 
stood before his God. The assassin lifted him 
from earth to heaven and so conferred a bless- 
ing. But he remained an assassin none the less. 
We reduced the fathers to slavery, and the 
sons have periled life to keep us free. That 
is the way history will state the case. Now, 
then, we have struck off their chains. Shall 
we not help them to find home«? They have 
not had homes yet. We have not let them 
know the meaning of the sacred name of home. 

Why, sir, our humblest man, if God has 
given him strength enough of mind and body 
to make him accountable, may find some will- 
ing wife and lowly home. If he is a true man 
he will find there a heaven upon earth._ No 
monarch upon his throne is more secure inthe 
enjoyment of his rights than he. The invisible 
guardianship of law surrounds and keeps him 
safe. What he has is his own. His wife is 
his, and when he enters under the low roof at 
night, the day's work done, the sweet_ voices 
that call him father are the voices of his own. 
He maybe poor and friendless outside of home, 
but he is rich there, and no mortal man in the 
Ptepublic is strong enough to do him wrong 
with safety, for the law is mightier than the 
strongest man. But these men whom you 
have freed have been slaves. Their fathers 
were torn away by felon hands from ancestral 
homes in their native land — heathen homes, 
perhaps, but I suppose God was there never- 
theless — and within the borders of the rebel 
States no homes since then have been permit- 
ted to them or to their children. Slavery can- 



• 16 



not know a home. Where the wife is the prop- 
erty of the husbancrs master, and may be used 
at will; where cliildreu are bred, like stock, 
tor sale; where man and woman, after twenty 
years oi/aithtul service from the time when the 
priest with the owner's sanction by mock cere- 
monies pretended to unite them, are parted 
and sold at that owner's will, there can be no 
such thing as home. Sir, no act of ours can 
htly enforce their freedom that does not con- 
template for them the security of home 
, iJut let It be borne in mind that it is not 
intended by this bill, to give freedmen homes 
at the cost of the Government. They will hire 
and pay full rent or they will buy and pay full 
price. IJut when a condition of things exists 
such as is now found in the late rebel States, 
where, as a race, the colored man could own 
no lands because held in slavery, and where 
because of his declared freedom the vindictive 
iiatred ot the old owners fastens itself upon 
him and would exclude him still from owner- 
siiip ot land, there does arise this necessity 
that we who have made them free .should enable 
him from the fruits of his own industry and with 
his own means to procurer for himself a home. 
And that is all that this bill proposes to do 
I Jivery man may now avail himself of the home- 
stead law. That will secure him eighty or one 
hundred and sixty acres for a nominal sum of 

^^frP'' ^^^'^^ '^''^ withdraws one million out 
ot hfty million acres of public lands in thp 
live States, namely, Florida, Mississippi, Ala- 
bama, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and permits 
the freedmen to lease in lots of forty acres 
each and ]uircliase at an agreed valuation. Let 
me read the fifth section of the bill: 



Sec. 5. And be dftinlier ctiaoted. That for tlio pur- 
poho of rcndeniiR this bureau self-sustaining, and in 
^n?i+i,?" ot lands heretolbrc assigned to freedmen 
and thereafterwards withdraiTO from the control of 
t!icbm-cau,tlio President shall reserve from sale or 
^m nl"f ' f "'I?' ^^^ i^omestcad or preemption laws, 
and asM.un ior the use of ircedmcn and loyal refu!?ec« 
male or lemale unoccupied public lands in Florida* 
xUississjppi, Alabam;\, Louisiana, and Arkansas, not 
exceeding in all one million acres of good laud. And 



for such term of time and at such annuah"nt ' s "nv 
be agreed upon between the Commiss oiei audsw\^ 
refugees or freedmen. The rental shnli ), i i 
upon a valuation of the land o be ascertih <:f;^ 
such manner as the Commissionermav nm"''l,'" 

AUhoenf Z"^*^ ^'-f ^'^"t- by SS pretn e' 
At tUe end of each term, or sooner if th,^ C'.^,t ■ 

s.oner apent thereto, the occurs of any p-iSso 
assigned their heirs and assigns, may pm-chase the 
sT.t?-'^''^'*^"'° "" """ thereti from he Uui el 
States m fee, upon payment therefor of the value of 
the land ascertained as aforesaid. ' 

There is no gift here. The freedmeA-pay 
lor everything. And the lands assigned are 
public lands, which we have given to States and 
tor schools and railroads and other uses which 
were national in their character. Millions of 
acres have been unwisely given away; but 
these lands, not given away, but sold for a 
price, will confer upon freedmen the inestima- 
ble blessings of hearth-stone and home.' 

V\ hy Mr. Speaker, in sortie of the States the 
bureau has given much more aid to the white 
reiugees than to the freedmen. The bureau has 
not confaned its operation to the men who were 
made free. 

In Alabama there had been on the 1st of 
April, eight hundred and seventy-nine thou- 
sand three hundred and forty-three ratlonsis- 
sued to refugees and three hundred and sixty- 
tour thousand two hundred and fifteen rations 
issued to freedmen, and in Arkansas there had 
been one million four thousand eight hundred 
and sixty-two rations issued to refugees, and 
seven hundred and fifteen thousand five hun- 
dred and seventy-two issued to freedmen. 
-Now, sir, all we propose to do is to let freed- 
man have a chance to buy a home. No land 
IS to be given away to him, but the Govern- 
ment that has made him free helps him to pur- 
chase a home. And this is all I desire to say 
in ottering this bill for consideration. Its pro- 
visions have, been carefuHv examined and ivill 
receive, I trust, the favor of the House. 



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